Captain Blood eBook

But Levasseur answered him, as he had answered Cahusac,
that a ship was a ship, and it was ships they needed
against their projected enterprise. Perhaps
because things had gone well with him that day, Blood
ended by shrugging the matter aside. Thereupon
Levasseur proposed that the Arabella and her prize
should return to Tortuga there to unload the cacao
and enlist the further adventurers that could now
be shipped. Levasseur meanwhile would effect
certain necessary repairs, and then proceeding south,
await his admiral at Saltatudos, an island conveniently
situated — in the latitude of 11 deg. 11’
N. — for their enterprise against Maracaybo.

To Levasseur’s relief, Captain Blood not only
agreed, but pronounced himself ready to set sail at
once.

No sooner had the Arabella departed than Levasseur
brought his ships into the lagoon, and set his crew
to work upon the erection of temporary quarters ashore
for himself, his men, and his enforced guests during
the careening and repairing of La Foudre.

At sunset that evening the wind freshened; it grew
to a gale, and from that to such a hurricane that
Levasseur was thankful to find himself ashore and
his ships in safe shelter. He wondered a little
how it might be faring with Captain Blood out there
at the mercy of that terrific storm; but he did not
permit concern to trouble him unduly.

CHAPTER XV

THE RANSOM

In the glory of the following morning, sparkling and
clear after the storm, with an invigorating, briny
tang in the air from the salt-ponds on the south of
the island, a curious scene was played on the beach
of the Virgen Magra, at the foot of a ridge of bleached
dunes, beside the spread of sail from which Levasseur
had improvised a tent.

Enthroned upon an empty cask sat the French filibuster
to transact important business: the business
of making himself safe with the Governor of Tortuga.

A guard of honour of a half-dozen officers hung about
him; five of them were rude boucan-hunters, in stained
jerkins and leather breeches; the sixth was Cahusac.
Before him, guarded by two half-naked negroes, stood
young d’Ogeron, in frilled shirt and satin small-clothes
and fine shoes of Cordovan leather. He was stripped
of doublet, and his hands were tied behind him.
The young gentleman’s comely face was haggard.
Near at hand, and also under guard, but unpinioned,
mademoiselle his sister sat hunched upon a hillock
of sand. She was very pale, and it was in vain
that she sought to veil in a mask of arrogance the
fears by which she was assailed.

Levasseur addressed himself to M. d’Ogeron.
He spoke at long length. In the end —